Through the Back Door: Applying Theories of Legal Compliance to Illegal Immigration During the Chinese Exclusion Era

This article applies theories of legal compliance to analyze the making of this country's first “illegal immigrants”—Chinese laborers who crossed the U.S.‐Canadian and U.S.‐Mexican borders in defiance of the Chinese exclusion laws (1882–1943). Drawing upon a variety of sources, including unpublished government records, I explore the ways in which Chinese laborers gained surreptitious entry into the United States during this period and ask, what explains their mass noncompliance? I suggest that while an instrumental perspective is useful for understanding these border crossings, it overlooks other important determinants of noncompliance: normative values and opportunity structures. Specifically, the exclusion laws were widely perceived by the Chinese as lacking social and moral legitimacy, and thus not worthy of obedience. In addition, the existence of smuggling networks and liberal immigration policies in Canada and Mexico played a critical role in facilitating noncompliance. The article concludes with a discussion about the benefits and challenges of using this theoretical framework to analyze noncompliance in immigration law.     

Book review

Protecting women Ulla Wikander, Alice Kessler‐Harris, Jane Lewis, eds. Protecting Women: Labor Legislation in Europe, the United States, and Australia, 1880–1920. 379 pp. (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995).     

Police in schools and student arrest rates across the United States: Examining differences by race,ethnicity, and gender

ABSTRACT

Implementing police in schools is a common strategy for ensuring school safety, but it is unknown whether, to what extent, and for whom the presence of police in schools affects student arrest rates. Utilizing nationwide data from the 2013–2014 Civil Rights Data Collection (N = 92,620), this study examines how police presence is related to student arrest rates, and whether this association varies by student race/ethnicity and gender. Path models and propensity score matching models show that the association between police presence and arrest rates was stronger for all the groups examined in schools with police, particularly for Black students and boys. This provides support for criminalization theories suggesting that police presence results in more arrests.     

Same- and Cross-Gender Sexual Harassment Victimization in Middle School: A Developmental-Contextual Perspective

Using a developmental-contextual framework, the present study investigated risk factors for same- and cross-gender sexual harassment victimization in 986 middle school students. Participants completed questionnaires in the fall and spring of the same school year so risk factors could be explored longitudinally. Results revealed that gender differences existed for same- and cross-gender forms of harassment. While girls reported more instances of receiving same- and cross-gender unwanted sexual attention, boys were more likely to report being victims of same-gender gender harassment. Important differences in risk factors also existed. Being bullied in the fall and feeling disconnected from school were risk factors for same-gender victimization but not for cross-gender victimization. Romantic relationship status, which was a significant risk factor for both same- and cross-gender victimization, was qualified by significant gender interactions. Results are explained through a developmental-contextual lens and implications for intervention are discussed.     

Interviewing to Elicit Cues to Deception: Improving Strategic Use of Evidence with General-To-Specific Framing of Evidence

Previous research has demonstrated that the strategic use of evidence (SUE) approach of interviewing criminal suspects is effective at eliciting cues to deception. This study aims at expanding on the SUE approach by testing the technique of general-to-specific evidence framing. We conducted an experiment using a mock terrorism paradigm. Guilty participants took part in a simulated act of terrorism, while innocent participants performed a similar act involving no transgression. All participants (N?=?102) were then interviewed using one of four evidence disclosure styles (early disclosure, late disclosure, 2-step disclosure, or 4-step disclosure). We expected that disclosing evidence to the suspect gradually, with increasing specificity, would induce guilty suspects to alter their statements to a greater extent than innocent suspects. General-to-specific evidence framing effectively discriminated between guilty and innocent suspects, but results only partially supported the hypotheses.     

Perceptions of restorative justice concepts: an evaluation of university housing residents

This study focuses on the perceptions of students who resided in a university residential hall regarding methods of conflict resolution and concepts of restorative justice. Furthermore, comparisons of perceptions between residents who participated in restorative justice workshops with residents who did not are also made. Variables studied include: understanding the perspectives of others, willingness to approach others, consideration of how to approach others, and awareness of communication styles during conflict situations. Additional considerations include a willingness for inclusion, providing perspectives, and listening and compromising during conflict situations. Also explored is usage of dialogue as well as residents becoming better equipped to approach others, and utilizing or sharing information about restorative justice concepts with others following restorative justice workshops. Findings suggest that residents exposed to restorative concepts during workshops were more likely than non-attenders to listen to the perspectives of others regarding conflict situations. The results indicate that a number of the residents within the university housing setting shared and utilized restorative justice techniques with others following attendance of the restorative workshops.     

Managing a New ‘Partnership’

Defence allegations about the malpractice of intermediaries in the Lubanga Case have revealed the ICC’s dependence upon intermediaries. Yet, surprisingly, the role of intermediaries has received relatively little attention in the academic literature. Since 2009, the Registry has been developing a court-wide set of guidelines to manage the Court’s relationship with intermediaries, which, if adopted, will substitute a large measure of standardisation over the disparate policies and practices currently in place across the various ICC organs and units. The Victims Rights Working Group and the Open Society Justice Initiative in conjunction with the International Refugee Rights Initiative are prominent amongst civil society actors that are playing a key role in advocating for the protection of, and support for, intermediaries through guidelines. This article examines the emerging position of intermediaries in international criminal law. It argues that adopting guidelines will inculcate a semi-institutionalised status for intermediaries, which both reflects, and contributes to, ‘professionalization’ in international criminal law. However, ‘professionalization’ is problematic to the extent to which it creates obstacles for the involvement of counter-hegemonic voices in international criminal law. Moreover, whatever gains guidelines may bestow on the Court and intermediaries, it is unclear how they can or will mesh with the emerging judicial response to intermediaries at the ICC. Ultimately, the increased regulation of intermediaries is likely to have a profound impact on relations between the different ICC organs; and it is set to be a touchstone for civil society–ICC relations more generally.     

Media Coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court: How Do Journalists Assess the Importance of Court Decisions?

Agenda-setting theory is central to understanding the connection between media and American government. Indeed, legislative and executive branches of American government are often characterized by their publicity-seeking behavior. This is not true of the judicial branch. However, the importance of media coverage is magnified for the United States Supreme Court because, lacking the public affairs mechanisms of the other two branches, the Court is dependent on media dissemination of information about its decisions. Despite this important role, little is known about what attracts media to cover Supreme Court cases. We ask what case characteristics attract media attention. We examine the effect of case variables on general media coverage of Court decisions (a concept we call “newsworthiness,” measured by whether mention of a given case decision appears on the front page of the New York Times) and on inclusion of a case on a list of legally significant cases over time (a concept we call “legal salience,” measured by the appearance of a case in the Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the Supreme Court). Examining cases over a 54-year period, we identify characteristics of cases appearing in either the New York Times or the CQ Guide or both. We conclude media news values may not always lead to coverage of the most legally salient cases, but some overlap indicates several cues used to judge immediate newsworthiness of cases stand the retrospective evaluation of legal significance.

[Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Political Communication for the following free supplemental resources: issue area matrices and predicted probabilities of case characteristics.]